Playa Del Carmen: Day 2, The Beach Photo Shoot

I will let the pictures tell the story on this post.  Such a gorgeous view of the ocean.  The waves crashing into the sand and the shore is one of my favorite sounds.  I could listen to that sound all day long.  Capturing some amazing pictures of the girls along the ocean made for a perfect evening. 

Playa Del Carmen: Day 2

Monday morning we hit up the breakfast buffet at Naos.  We were stuffed by the time we left there.  So many options for breakfast in the morning.  

We decided to start our day at the kiddie pool, which was right next to the big pool.  

How adorable does Addison look in her swim cover up and hat?  I love it!  

Mark and I ordered one of our favorite drinks, Mango Tango, and started soaking up the sun.  

Mark worked with Addison a lot this week in the pool.  By the end of the week, she was treading water for 20 seconds and could swim the width of the pool.  They both did amazing this week. 

The girls had fun in the kids pool.  This slide was one of their favorites.  

Proof that I was there too...on vacation.  Since I am always behind the camera you rarely see me in pictures.  I think the 3 of us were all enjoying a Mudslide drink.  Yum!  

We enjoyed lunch at the Sunrise Cafe, which had great food.  

The girls were so hot and tired that we decided to head back to the room and rest for a while.  They fell asleep quickly listening to some music.  

Then is was time for family pictures...which no one was thrilled about...I brought my tripod along and was testing the lighting and placement of everyone while Mark and Lauren posed for me!  

Addison joined in on the fun as well.  

Then it was time.  Smile everyone!  

After taking pictures from our balcony, we headed down through the resort to take some more.  Addison was a little more difficult this time around and gave us a lovely smile.  Lauren looked gorgeous!  

She is growing up so fast and is so pretty! 

Then we headed to the beach to capture some more amazing photos. After the beach, dinner was enjoyed at Olio's.  This was an Italian outdoor restaurant and it was a very muggy/humid night.  Dinner was fabulous, but all we wanted to do was get inside to some air conditioning!  It was a wonderful 2nd in paradise.  

Playa Del Carmen: Day 1

Last week we spent the week in paradise. Sun, pools, beaches, sand, the sound of the ocean, great desserts, wonderful meals, lots of drinks, and lots of relaxing.  We were in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.  We stayed at this resort and loved it!  

We headed out early Sunday morning.  The girls have been begging me for a drink from Starbucks, so breakfast was a double chocolate chip drink (no coffee included, but lots of whip cream!)  

Arrival at the airport was early, but the check in process easy quick and easy.  Even getting security went smoothly.  

Equipped with music, movies and headphones, the girls were ready.  

Addison loves to fly.  She doesn't have any trouble at all.  She enjoyed the window seat.  I was in the middle and Lauren in the aisle.  

Mark was across the way, but Lauren was able to hold his hand when the plane took off and landed.  The flight was a little over 3 hours, but each seat had a TV.  The girls were able to watch movies and their favorite TV shows the whole flight.  It made for a quick flight.  

When we arrived, this was the view from our room.  Delightful.  We made it through customs easily and headed out to our private vehicle.  A Lincoln Navigator.  It was so nice to be taken directly to our resort without having to make stops at other resorts to drop people off.  

We quickly got settled and Lauren and I took off exploring the resort.  Addison and Mark must have decided to hang out at the room for a while.  

Both girls were so excited to have as many slushies as they wanted all week, without alcohol of course.  Lauren's favorite was the Mango Tango and Addison loved the Mudslide.  It would not surprise me if one of the girls accidentally took a sip of one of our drinks....we did our best to keep them separated and I think we did...but you never know!  

We headed to the beach Sunday shortly after arriving at the resort.  Addison was not thrilled to be walking so far to the beach...

But once we got there, clearly she was fine.  

They threw off their cover ups and headed to the ocean.  

Addison was so excited to be building a sand castle with Mark.  She had been talking about it for weeks. 

Lauren will do cartwheels just about anywhere.  

Then we went back to the room and got cleaned up and headed out to dinner.  Throughout the week, Addison stopped and posed for several pictures around the resort.  She loves to have her picture taken.  We enjoyed dinner at Naos, which was a buffet with a variety of food choices.  This was probably the girls favorite restaurant as they had several choices of food and could go back as many times as they wanted.  

It was a great day of travel and a great 1st day in paradise!  

Recital 2015

 Just to warn you....there are 30 pictures in this post...yes....30.  I want to remember every minute of recital this year.  It was crazy.  It was busy.  It was fun.  2 girls, 3 shows, 7 costumes, 19 performances, and so many memories!  

Both girls have said they want to try gymnastics, so this might be our last recital...but both girls have also said they want to dance next year...so who knows???  All I know is that we have 6 weeks off of no activities...nothing!  Yea for Summer! 

So lets start from the beginning.  The madness started Friday morning at 9:00 when we arrived at Blue Springs South for dress rehearsal.  Hair was done, make-up was done, we just needed to get into costumes.  

Mark was wonderful all weekend patiently waiting for the girls to perform.  He purchased tickets to one show and snuck in to the other 2 just to watch the girls dance.  Then he hung out in the hallway hoping we would come out to visit...or he ran errands and got flowers for the girls!  

Seems like these costumes are the ones I always capture pictures in.  These are the first ones the girls put on and I always seem to remember pictures early on in the day.  

Friday during dress rehearsal we are able to take pictures and record the performances.  I loved her tap performance of Hard Knock Life.  It definitely was a crowd favorite.  

Maylan is a dance friend for the past few years and our neighbor!  We were so thrilled to run into her in the neighborhood last summer when we moved in! 

Lauren certainly loves her jazz moves.  This routine was Love Shack.  

Addison's ballet costume is exactly what a little ballerina should look like.  Pink and sparkly.  

We spent a lot of time back stage patiently waiting for our turn to go on stage.  The girls had 19 performances total, but they were early on in each act.  So after they finished dancing in act 1, there was a long break (and an intermission) until act 2.  Then another long break until Lauren's performance in Finale.  

Thank you Lauren for taking a picture of Addison and I practicing for Mom/Dot dance.  We were a little rusty at rehearsal, but we did great Friday night up on stage!  

Lauren nailed her ballet routine.  She was slow to warm up to ballet this year but has really grown to love it.  She did a wonderful job up on stage at each performance. 

Hey Mickey was also a crowd favorite.  Addison has a blast doing this performance and seemed to really have fun each time she was up on stage...although by Saturday night and show 3 she was pretty tired of putting her costumes, tights, and shoes on....again....plus hair and make-up touch ups every time I turned around.  

Lauren had the opportunity to participate in Finale this year.  It was a 5 minute performance with close to 50 girls, broke up into 5 groups each doing a different routine at a different time and it all came together perfectly!  

Friday night the fun began.  Back stage was actually the gym and it was awesome!  We had so much room to spread out and get ready.  This pictures includes Maylan and Kaylyn and Karlee...all good friends of ours.  

Miss Treva has been a fabulous tap teacher at the studio for several years and she is retiring this year.  I am so glad Lauren had the opportunity to dance with Miss Treva and learn from her.  

For the Noon performance I chaperoned backstage, so I was able to capture some of the dance moves from side stage.  

Addison's little ballet class was so sweet.  Miss Rachel was her teacher and she adored both the girls.  She taught Lauren's ballet class as well. 

A pretty dark picture, but watching Addison back stage for her ballet performance. 

While Addison was on stage doing ballet, Lauren's tap class was setting up.  They did awesome each time they were up on stage.  Such a great routine and a great group of girls. 

Recital shirts are a must and thanks to Nana and Mama for fringing them.  We got a lot of compliments on them.  

Nana was around off and on throughout the weekend.  She hung around Friday during dress rehearsal and her and Gramps watched the show Friday night.  She stopped by Saturday afternoon as well to say hello.  

I love this picture of the girls hanging out backstage...such great memories. 

Addison insisted on doing her own make-up...so I let her...sigh.  It didn't look too bad.  

Then it was time for act 2 and 2 more performances.  Again, I was backstage.  I love this picture of Lauren leaping with her partner. 

Obviously, Addison spotted me back stage...and she smiled...and waved...and Mark saw her wave at me while he was out in the crowd watching.  So stinking cute! 

Like always, we have to spoil them with flowers. 

Here is a glimpse of the backstage excitement.  Playing games, eating snacks, watching movies, coloring books, I-pods, computers, kindles, and more!  

Here is our little set up!  Clothes rack for all the costumes, chairs for me and the girls, blanket to sit on, suitcase full of shoes, tights, snacks, movies, coloring books, and much much more.  Bag of hair and make-up supplies and a small cooler for lunch Saturday.  After show 2 on Saturday we grabbed an early dinner before heading back to the high school for show 3...and Finale pictures before show 3.  Saturday was a loooooong day.  At least on Friday we came home for about 3 hours to rest and relax.  Saturday we were gone all day!  

Part of the recital experience is hanging out back stage and making new friends, playing tag, and eating sugar and drinking pop just to stay awake for another late night and a late performance.  I think Addison went on stage for Hey Mickey around 9:30 each night...I really have no idea...you loose track of time after a while!  

Finale pictures were at 5:30 Saturday night.  Lauren is in the 2nd row right in the middle.  She loved the Finale experience and loved dancing with all the girls. 

I captured this beautiful picture of Lauren right before group pictures were taken.  I absolutely love it.  Her smile is so genuine and she really was having a blast! 

And Addison was too!  Although there were a few tears shed when hair had to be done.  Neither one of the girls enjoy getting their hair done (in a bun.)  But, with each performance and hair re-do, it seemed to get better and better.  They certainly loved putting make-up on for each show and touching up make-up as many times as they needed to.  Even though it was an exhausting few days, it was awesome.  So many amazing memories and so much fun!  Mark and I are so proud of both the girls and their dedication to the long dance season (10 months.)  We saw huge improvements from each girl this year in every class that they took.  Maybe we will be back again next year?  Or maybe we will move on to gymnastics...who knows!